Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1887-05-14
DIPHTHERIA.

For some time past diphtheria has
been in our midst, and hearts have
beaten heavily, cheeks have grown pale
and eyes anxious as the dread word was
listened to. The sound of children in
agony has been heard, the voice of
mourning has been uplifted from the
family circle, and little forms have been
hidden forever from the eye of love
have been removed from the fathers
kiss and the mothers caress. Diph-
liberia is grim and pitiless. 1t blights the
opening bud and sewers the tender shoot.
Itmust be vigilantly guarded against, and
vigorously resisted in the very inception
of its attack. All parents should have a
thorough knowledge of the methods
of this destroyer of infancy, and
every household should be armed
with weapons of the greatest pos
sible effectiveness. The following ex-
cerpt from the Medical Record will there
fore explain itself;
DR.. E. L Oatman, of Nyack, writes that
for the past two years he has treated diph
liberia by the local use of solution of the
mercuric bicloride, and has been greatly
pleased with the results obtained. Iron in
large doses and free stimulation certainly
play an important part in the treatment;
but with these alone lost-at st. Agatha's
Asylum-ten out of twentythree cases,
while since the addition of local treatment
by the mercuric solution, / have lost but one
out of thirty-four subsequent cases. This
patient died two weeks after the subsistence
of all local symptoms, from paralysis of the
muscles of respiration. Seven of my cases
have had more or less paralysis of the
muscles of deglutition during convalescencc.
This appears to be large percentage, and
might direct some suspicion toward the
mercury as being in q measure causative.
The details of treatment in an ordinary
case, and as followed in the hospital ward,
are as follows: l manufacture on the spot
about fifty swabs-made by twisting alb
sorbent cotton around stick about the size
of a lead pencil. The cotton should be
pulled out and twisted firmly around the tip
Of the stick, extending beyond it, that the
end may be thoroughly protected, so that
no injury be done while using It. This is
dipped in a solution of the bicloride of mer-
curry, two grains to one pint of water, and is
passed into the throat until it touches the
pOSb6rlOr Wall Oh Iu6 pudTyuA. IL IL bHeu
instantly withdrawn and burnt. No swab
should ever be used q second time. No at
tempts are made to rub off any of the MEM
brane, but more or less always adheres to
the swab. This procedure is repeated hourly,
day and night, until the disease begins to
subside-which it usually does in forty-eight
hours. / follow every application by the
internal administration of five to ten
minims of tincture of the chloride of iron,
and as much whisky and milk as the case
appears to demand. If the interior or pos
terror mares are invaded, the nose should be
syrinQed. The conical urethral syringe is
the safest instrument to leave in the hands
of professional nurse. 1t is of the
first Importance that the nurse or mother be
fully instructed in the method of treatment,
and should make the application satisfac-
torily to the physician before being left in
charge of the patient. In no case have l
ever experienced any difficulty in getting my
instructions carried out, or met with any
serious resistance from the patient.
Spraying the throat is far more difficult
procedure for the lay attendant, as the
tongue obstructs the passage, while none of
the loose membrane and mucus is removed
as with the swab, but is swallowed, and
systematio infection turthered. The
diphtheritic membrane cannot flourish in
contact with the bichloride of mercury, and
if this invaluable agent be constantly ap-
piled to the diseased surface for few
hours, the poison will be destroyed. at
tach great importance to the method of ap-
plication, and the extraction of the loosened
membrane, beneath which the poison is
still active, but inaccessible to the
antiseptic."